Oscar Pistorius faced a second day of grueling cross-examination in his murder trial yesterday, as the prosecution accused him of caring more about himself than the death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
Prosecution lawyer Gerrie Nel kept tearing into the 27-year-old’s account of his relationship with Steenkamp, painting the star Paralympian sprinter as selfish and self-obsessed.
“It’s all about ‘I.’ It’s all about Mr Pistorius,” Nel said, reading cellphone messages in which Steenkamp said she was upset and “scared” of Pistorius’ behavior.
Nel’s fierce questioning on Wednesday brought Pistorius to tears and drew angry retorts, and yesterday the prosecutor quickly renewed his line of attack.
“In an attempt to evaluate your relationship, we rely on what you say, it was the other person in this relationship that was killed by you,” he said, bringing Pistorius to a tearful admission.
Nel also accused Pistorius of making a public apology to Steenkamp’s parents just to make himself feel better.
“Did you feel better after the apology?” Nel asked.
Aside from the fireworks, the double amputee sprinter is likely to face persistent questions about the minutiae of what happened on Valentine’s Day last year, when he shot Steenkamp through a closed door in his flat in what prosecutors say was premeditated murder and Pistorius said was an accident.
Pistorius has blamed his lawyers for discrepancies between his accounts given at a bail hearing and in previous written testimony.
The state charges that Pistorius intentionally fired his gun at a closed bathroom door, knowing his model girlfriend was inside, after the couple argued.
However, Pistorius says he fired the four shots that hit the 29-year-old law graduate, model and aspiring actress, thinking that she was an intruder coming out to attack him.
Prosecution lawyer Nel took a fierce tone from the start of his cross-examination on Wednesday, showing the court a graphic picture of the slain model’s head wounds with coagulated blood and brain matter.
“Have a look there, I know you don’t want to because you don’t want to take responsibility,” he said.
“I don’t want to look at a picture where I’m tormented by what I saw,” Pistorius replied, wailing through tears.
After the session Steenkamp’s mother, June, said she wanted the Paralympian to see what he did to her daughter.
“He must see me there in the court, he must feel my eyes boring into him, I think it makes a lot of difference. It’s very traumatic when certain things come up. This is my child — and I must listen to the graphic detail,” she told Britain’s Daily Mirror. “I look at Oscar the whole time, to see how he is coping, how he is behaving. I’m obsessed with looking at him, it’s just instinctive, I can’t explain it.”
After sitting in court stoically, June Steenkamp said she breaks down at the end of the day when she returns to her hotel.
“I keep it all in and when I get back to the hotel it all comes out and I break down,” she said.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
RSS